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Bucharest, May 6 /Agerpres/ - Prime Minister Emil Boc said while attending the opening of the SMEs fair on Wednesday that the 13 billion euros borrowed from the IMF will go to the National Bank of Romania (BNR) with a view to unfreezing lending, while the 5 billion euros from the European Commission will finance the budget deficit. '13 billion euros of the amount will go to the National Bank of Romania (BNR). We hope that the BNR, by correlating monetary and fiscal policies, will manage to unfreeze the Romanian lending market in the upcoming period. We also hope that, thanks to the BNR policy too, the interest rates will drop in the period ahead and the market will have more financial liquidities in order to finance the SMEs and the economy as a whole, to create jobs and keep the current ones,' Boc explained. He underscored that the money from the IMF will also help strengthen the country's forex reserves. This means, on the one hand, that we'll be able to maintain - also by the effort the BNR will make - a correlation of the euro-to-the -leu ratio, i.e. a reasonable exchange rate and one accepted by the Romanian economy; we'll also be able to have more money in the Romanian market in order to extend loans thanks to the possibility of cutting the minimal mandatory reserves that we have now by this loan,' the prime minister said. Boc announced that the 5 billion euros from the European Commission will be directed to the Public Finance Ministry for the budget deficit. This means the state will no longer daily borrow from the market and that money the state gets today will stay at your disposal, at the disposal of the firms and banks to produce lending for projects in the Romanian economy, since we'll be able to finance the budget deficit by this loan we take from the European Commission', he stressed. The PM voiced hope that an improvement of the business environment will be noticed in the upcoming period. There are fairly optimistic pre-requisites that make us hope for an improvement of the business environment and a smooth development of the economy,' Boc explained. He said the measures taken by the Government so far aim to prevent or nullify tax evasion, as the case may be, and sustain business under the current hard economic conditions. Boc underscored that the budget is oriented toward job creation, and the absorption of European funds became a top priority. According to him, any state in order to be able to meet the social obligations it has, should first produce the required prosperity. Boc cited the measures taken by the Government to this effect, with the first one being the payment of the debts that the central budget had to the firms, which meant a budget effort worth nearly one billion euros. Secondly, he said, the executive kept the flat tax, the VAT and promised the social contributions would stay at the current levels this year. He explained that measures were conceived in order to direct the state budget to the creation of new jobs and to keeping the existing ones. For the first time in Romania, 20 percent of the budget money is assigned to investment. (...) There are signs that such money already produces effects in the economy, by keeping the jobs. 20 percent of the money is assigned to the massive public investments in infrastructure, be it transport, education, health care, farming, environment', he said. Boc underscored that the absorption of the EU funds is an absolute priority of his Government. He believes Romania is on the right road to take advantage of the nearly 30 billion euros in European funds in order to 'radically' modernize the country. We have simplified the legislation, shortened the deadlines, offered more advantages to the enterprisers and the business climate benefits in this current cycle from one billion euros for the SMEs alone. Furthermore, the Labour Ministry has been assigned important amounts to back the enterprises that hire unemployed people; we have succeeded, in four months, to do as much as the previous Government did in two years also in terms of the projects submitted and of the projects approved and in terms of the financing contracts', Boc said. The prime minister added the rulers are working on the promises related to the non-taxation of the re-invested profit meant to back the business climate and on simplifying the taxation laws.
[Source:
Romanian National News Agency
AGERPRES
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